I haven’t been shooting for high level teams, I’ve been prioritizing going from zone to zone, capturing those pets I don’t have.

My max level team is around level 11, with my go-to badass being my Grunty the Murloc Marine.

My other two main pets are the Darkmoon Zeppelin and the Phoenix Hatchling.

What I’ve basically done is create a Marine Corps Fire Team, with a direct fire assault specialist, call for artillery and medic.

You do things your way, I’ll do them mine.

It’s great, I love my team. They’re lots of fun to level and battle with when I’m trying to go for a complete takedown. I’ve kicked the butts of level 13 battle pet groups in the wild.

BUT… I am flying around the world, visiting every zone, and trying to capture every pet I don’t have yet, including the level 1 pets.

My A-Team is just a tad bit overpowered when trying to capture a level 1 Spirit Crab.

That means I’ve got to have a second plan just for capturing pets.

Every time I mouse over a pet I don’t have yet, I swoop in and then check their level versus my various saved Pet Battle Teams (love that addon), and try to balance a pet team so I have one pet that is underpowered, one that is right on or a teeny bit higher, and then usually my high level Phoenix as a backup.

The way I’ve been doing it, I try to pick a low level pet so I can do just enough damage without doing TOO MUCH, killing my desired capture target. Then I’ve got an appropriately leveled pet so when a second or third pet shows up, I’ve got someone I would like to level up a bit available to swap in and do some butt kicking, get some XP. And I’ve got my high level Phoenix to make sure I can pull it out if I am in over my head, and ALSO to provide after-battle healing.

I’ve tried to spend enough time thinking about it to be ready, without going overboard on matching precise teams to every kind of pet balancing, you know?

Despite all this, I cannot count how many times I have killed a rare by hitting it too hard. Usually because my ‘underpowered’ pet has become overpowered from all the previous captures, and needed to be swapped out before I pulled that last rare, damnit.

Is it a big problem? Nah.

Is it something I’m going to lose sleep over?

Of course not.

But damn it’s annoying to get that rare I wanted, only to kill it by hitting too hard!

I killed three rare Polly’s in Northern Stranglethorn before I found a team low enough to get ‘er done while healthy enough to live through the adds.

Now, here is where the timeliness of Kays comment saved my bacon.

I had a Terrible Turnip pet in this mornings crop, and I went and put it on the Auction House.

It was only when I got to work that I checked comments, saw what Kay had to tell us, and about blew a vessel. I had the perfect capturing pet and let it get away? Ah crap!

Thanks be to Cassie who saw it on her own, and canceled my auction for me, so I still have it waiting to learn and level when I get home.

I am absolutely going to add the Terrible Turnip to my team, focus on getting that little guy leveled, and make him my permanent go-to pet for all capturing duties here on out.

I don’t know for certain this is the perfect answer since I ain’t tried it yet, but as far as I can see, no more shall I lose those rares from my own idiocy.

Thank you Kay, and thank you to Blizzard for thinking ahead and giving us a pet to prevent morons like me from killing the very things we fought for in the first place.

/run for i=1,C_PetBattles.GetNumPets(2) do SELECTED_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(C_PetBattles.GetName(2,i)..” – “.._G[“BATTLE_PET_BREED_QUALITY”..C_PetBattles.GetBreedQuality(2,i)]) end

(should all be on one line, but will wrap in the macro UI of course)
You will probably have to keybind it, since most of your UI disappears when you start a pet battle, but it’ll show you the quality of all the beasties you’re facing.

I have to admit, I thought the pokemanz thing was stupid to begin with, but I’ve gotten to enjoy it. I have an all boss team, Lil Ragnaros, Lil Tarecgosa and Lil XT right now, although they’re all level 4. Been trying to level characters more than pokemanz. Glad my terrible turnip didn’t sell, now. after Bear’s comment with the capture attack…

I rather like mechanical pets for the ‘come back to life’ thing, although undead do it too. My only current undead pet is the vampiric batling from back when Kara had the extra boss with the arcanite ripper.

So… in reading this post, I got the impression that there’s a way to tell if a pet is poor, common, uncommon, or rare before [or while] fighting it. Is that something that’s done through an addon, or an ability that’s gained through leveling up Pokepets?

I’ve been playing less WoW lately, still haven’t bought the MoP expansion, but have had some fun with “non-combat pet” combat. I have a few combinations that I use, but I don’t think I’ve gotten any individual pet above level 5 or so. I am feeling pretty fortunate to have been around long enough to have the Spirit of Competition in my lineup…

At this stage, I’ve been using the Ancona Chicken for pets that are equivalent in level (six at the moment) or lower. I use the ability to reduce the opponent’s attack and then pop in some lower pets to get them some experience and also reduce the damage I’m throwing out at the same time. Worst case scenario, is I foolishly try to use my Dwarf for catching pets and he throws six traps before actually succeeding. By then I’ve probably lost one pet. But otherwise it has been a sound strategy.

@Theodoxus – No addon that I know of shows the rarity of the pet BEFORE you enter into battle with them, as I believe they are generated randomly at that point. As BBB pointed out, PetBattleTeams from Curse is great for mousing over a creature before you enter battle with them, to see if you’ve captured them already, how many you have, and the quality of the ones you have.

PetBattleQualityGlow from Curse is awesome for telling you the quality of the opponents you’re facing, once you’ve started the battle.

@BBB – As an alternative to the Terrible Turnip, an amphibian like a Toad or Small Frog has the Frog Kiss ability, which has ramping damage. It starts out small, but increases on each successful hit, plus you have the chance to CC your opponent by turning them into a frog for 1 round.

I usually fight wild pets that are 2-3 levels above my own pets. That gives good difficulty bonus xp, and it’s not likely I kill anything by accident. A healing pet is good for capturing duties as well.
@ Theodoxus: I don’t think you can tell what the rarity of a pet is until you begin combat, but there is an add-on that will show you the rarity while you are fighting it (Battle pet quality notifier).